On Jan. 23, Fermilab broke ground for a one-of-its-kind research facility to develop and operate particle detectors that use liquid-argon technology to explore the mysteries of energy, matter, space and time. The new generation of liquid-argon detectors will allow scientists to observe neutrino interactions with greater precision and resolution than ever before. The MicroBooNE experiment, which comprises a 170-ton neutrino detector, will be the first to move into the new facility. You can watch the three-minute video of the groundbreaking here.

From SLAC Today

Accelerator Science Fellowships Benefit Ph.D.s and LHC

John Cesaratto and Valentina Previtali are the 2011 recipients of the Toohig Fellowships. The fellowships, recently announced by the LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP), provide postdoctoral research positions in accelerator science for recent Ph.D.s in physics or engineering.

LARP is a collaborative initiative between the Department of Energy Office of Science's Division of High Energy Physics and four DOE Office of Science laboratories, including SLAC [and Fermilab]. Its mission is to study and improve the operation of CERN's Large Hadron Collider; the fellowships fund two to three years of studies, with fellows spending about half their tenure at CERN and the remainder at one of the DOE labs involved in the LARP collaboration.

Toohig Fellow John Cesaratto has already started his work at SLAC. Cesaratto is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he focused on accelerator physics and nuclear astrophysics.

According to Cesaratto, his work in nuclear astrophysics led directly to his interest in accelerator physics. "It was necessary for me to build a low-energy, high-intensity accelerator to make an astrophysically significant measurement," Cesaratto said. "I became very interested in the production and transport of beams, and the Toohig Fellowship provides me with an opportunity to further my understanding of accelerators by working on the world's largest collider."

Toohig Fellow Valentina Previtali selected Fermilab as her U.S. host and is at work on collimation projects. She earned her Ph.D. at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland in 2010 working on crystal collimation studies for the LHC, and, she says, she's determined to continue to contribute to improving LHC performance.

US physicists call for underground neutrino facility

From Nature News, Jan. 27, 2012

When the US National Science Board nixed plans for an underground lab in 2010, multiple potential experiments were left homeless, and the US physics community was in a kerfuffle. Now, 40 leading theoretical physicists, including three Nobel Prize winners, have written to the US Department of Energy (DOE) urging it build an underground facility to study subatomic neutrinos that would compensate to some degree for the lab's absence.

"We … are writing this letter to note the pressing scientific need for having a large underground detector, linked to a long baseline intense neutrino beam," say the signatories, who include Nobelists Steven Weinberg of the University of Texas at Austin, Sheldon Glashow of Boston University in Massachusetts and Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Their letter, dated 19 January, is a boost for the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE), an estimated US$1.3-billion complex with detectors housed in the Homestake mine in South Dakota and, 1,300 kilometres away, at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, where particle accelerators would generate beams of neutrinos and antineutrinos (see graphic). The letter argues that an underground facility is needed to search for matter–antimatter asymmetry using neutrinos and for proton decay, a process that, if seen, would confirm the theoretical unification of the forces of nature at scales beyond that which could be probed by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Europe's particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.

Near misses can help you hit the mark for safety

An accident in December could have been avoided if proper safety precautions had been taken.

Near misses can provide valuable information about potential dangers that we might fail to notice in our everyday work. Take, for example, a recent event that happened at the laboratory.

In December, two staff members were preparing to move equipment stored on a large shelving system that contained decommissioned equipment earmarked as excess or scrap. A floor dolly loaded with equipment was propped against the shelving, and when one of the workers moved it away, the shelving system collapsed. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

This near miss was used as a chance to educate the laboratory about dangers similar shelving systems can pose.

Those who investigated the incident noted that neither the sides nor the backs of the shelves had the necessary cross supports to reinforce the unit. In addition, the shelving system was not secured to the wall. The combination of poor installation and the heavy equipment stored on the shelves—especially on the higher shelves—caused them to collapse. Now individuals from all organizations within the laboratory are visually inspecting their shelving to ensure that they don't have the same issues.

If you are installing a shelving system, make sure you follow all the directions. If you see any storage or shelving that looks unsafe, please contact your Senior Safety Officer.

—Amy Pavnica

Accelerator Update

Jan 25-27

- The Main Injector gap clearing kickers caused problems
- Neutron Therapy Facility personnel treated patients
- A Booster RF station tripped off and would not reset
- Main Injector will go down for 7 to 14 days to replace a quadrupole magnet beginning on Jan. 31